Officers upgraded to ‘good condition’
Investigation continues: South River neighborhood still in shock
PHOTOS BY JEFF HUNTLEY Police investigate the crime scene after a fatal shooting in South River last week.
Not since the 1930s has an officer been shot in South River.
But that record came to an end a week ago when Chief of Police Wesley Bomba and acting Lt. John Bouthillette were shot by an angry gunman.
On Dec. 21 at around 10:45 a.m., borough police shot to death Edward Abrams Jr., 31, of June Street, as he wielded a shotgun down his street onto William Street, shooting two civilians as well as Bomba and Bouthillette.
The gunfight finally ended, according to police reports, on Eastern Street, just off Vargas Park where borough police officers John McKenna and Eric Gartner pursued Abrams, fatally shooting him.
Members of the Middlesex County Coroner’s Office remove the body of Edward Abrams Jr. near Eastern Street and Vargas Park last week. Abrams was gunned down by police after he allegedly shot two police officers and two civilians in the area.
According to Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Ernest Bergman, Abrams was shot once in the left armpit and once in the upper lip.
The gunshot wound to the upper lip proved to be the fatal shot, Bergman said. That gunshot penetrated Abrams’ sinuses and lodged in his cervical cavity, causing death.
Officials are still investigating which police officer fired the fatal gunshot, Bergman added.
Initial reports from Middlesex County Prosecutor Glenn Berman said Abrams seemed to have died from the gunshot to the armpit.
PHOTOS BY JEFF HUNTLEY South River Detective John Casey takes photographs of a vehicle struck by several bullets during a shooting spree on William Street in the borough last week. A bullet hole (inset) in a South River resident’s car is damage allegedly caused by Edward Abrams Jr. last week.
According to Berman, Abrams had just gotten into an argument with his mother prior to the shooting, which began around 10:35 a.m. Abrams’ mother is said to have not been injured during the argument.
After the heated debate, however, Abrams is said to have left his home at 2 June St., wielding a shotgun and shooting randomly along the street, according to witnesses.
Abrams’ first shooting victim was South River resident Timothy Matchett, 37.
Matchett is said to have been driving his burgundy Toyota Camry down William Street when he was grazed in the back by a bullet.
Middlesex County Prosecutor Glenn Berman speaks to reporters last week during a press conference that followed a fatal shooting in South River earlier that day.
His injuries did not require surgery.
Caroline Ramos was inside her William Street home when she was also grazed by a bullet to the neck. She also did not require any surgery.
By this time, reports of a possible shooting had begun to inundate police headquarters.
Because they were in the vicinity when they heard the emergency call, Berman said Bomba and Bouthillette responded to the nearby scene.
When they arrived, less than a quarter of a mile from police headquarters, they encountered Abrams who immediately began shooting at the police car, Berman said.
According to Berman, Bouthillette, who was seated in the passenger side of the vehicle, received several buckshot wounds on the right side. Those rounds penetrated his kidney, liver and diaphragm.
Bomba, who was driving at the time, made it out of the vehicle and was able to shoot at least three times from his .40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun, Berman said.
The 56-year-old chief has been on the force since 1967.
Officers Gartner and McKenna subsequently responded, and reportedly followed Abrams down William Street into Vargas Park, according to Berman. There Abrams reportedly shot at the two officers, and they returned fire.
Abrams fell in the parking lot area just off Eastern Street inside of Vargas Park.
Bomba and Bouthillette were listed in good condition as of yesterday, according to officials at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick.
Neither Bomba nor Bouthillette was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of the incident, something that is not out of the ordinary for non-road police officers.
Capt. Michael Trojanowski is acting chief until Bomba fully recovers. He was sworn in by borough officials last week.


